Wednesday, 19 February 2014

The Grenadine archipelago: Bequia and Mustique a study of contrasts

Alaria sailing to Bequia

Rain squalls over St. Vincent

With a brisk wind across our beam, Alaria sailed due south past the verdant mountainous island of St.
Vincent to the small island of Bequia over 50 miles south of St. Lucia.We had all of our sails up so we travelled
much faster than we could with the engine.There is something extremely satisfying sailing to your next study area
powered entirely by the Trade Winds!

Alaria under full sail arriving at Bequia

Islands of Bequia and Mustique showing our survey sites

Port Elizabeth is Bequia’s major port and it is where we
cleared customs to enter the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines
(actually only the northern Grenadines since the southern Grenadines are the
country of Grenada).Port Elizabeth’s
Admiralty Bay has both anchorages and moorings.We decided to anchor to keep costs down but it was a lovely spot where
we watched the sun set into the sea each night.

It is obvious after just walking around for a Bequia for a
little while that it is a very friendly place.When I first went ashore to clear customs, I asked a fellow where the
customs house was and he insisted on walking me to the building.The small town of Port Elizabeth has a
‘light’ feel to it.It is not crowded,
there are enough tourists to keep shops and eateries going.The open air market is well stocked with nice
local produce.

Bequia's Port Elizabeth

In Bequia, we arranged to see Mr. Herman Belmar who is Deputy
Director of Grenadines Affairs.He was
eager to have us survey the reefs in the region and especially the Tobago Cays
Marine Park. We went over the charts considering
where we could work and where we can anchor.It was clear he knew the waters around Bequia like the back of his hand.He knew where reefs were best developed and
where fishing pressure will likely be highest.He also called over to the island of Mustique to arrange for us to work
there after a bit.

Mr. Herman Balmar pointing out keep coral reefs in the Grenadines

The Grenadines are really different from anything we’ve
experienced so far.It is an archipelago
of small to tiny islands that stretch about 50 miles from St. Vincent to Grenada.Bequia is one of the larger islands but it is
only a bit over 5 miles long.

The people of Bequia have a tradition of building boats,
fishing and whaling.They have a permit
from the International Whaling Commission to take up to four whales a year but
often they don’t get one. They use
traditional methods.They sail to the
whale, harpoon it with a hand-thrown harpoon and then float it to a small
whaling station on a tiny island off the east coast of Bequia for processing.

Bequia's whaling station

Fishing is important in Bequia.We saw lots of folks fishing both the inshore
reefs and going offshore to catch some of the larger pelagic fish such as
wahoo, mahi mahi, Spanish mackerel and small tuna.Those are the fish I saw landed at the
dock.Pelagic fish are the best choice of fish to eat because
they can be fished sustainably.Unlike
reef fish these pelagic fish grow rapidly, they reproduce early and often, and
they are abundant.

Bequia's colorful fleet of fishing boats

Nice catch of fish being filleted.

Only some fishermen can venture offshore for the larger
pelagic fish.Many people fish with
spears, traps and nets the inshore reefs.Gillnets are particularly destructive because they drape over reefs for considerable distances.Fish try to swim through the net but their gills
get caught. Chancey happened upon one such gillnet as he did his fish
surveys.He photographed lots of large
parrotfish caught and dead in the nets.These nets fish for as long as they are deployed. If they are left too long the caught fish will rot and not be suitable to sell or eat. Because there is not much of
a market for parrotfish in Bequia, many (or most) are discarded dead.The site where the gillnet below was deployed had lower than
average parrotfish abundance on the reef according to our fish surveys.

Gillnet strung across a coral reef (photo Chancey Macdonald)

Dead parrotfish caught in the gillnet (photo Chancey Macdonald)

Bequia’s coral reefs are modest in extent (to be generous).Chancey and I dived on two widely separated of
reefs on opposite shores of Admiralty Bay (Port Elizabeth) and then we took Alaria around to Friendship on the
eastern side of the island.There the
Trade Winds blow incessantly. We anchored in a corner of Friendship cove but
had to set the stern anchor to minimize our roll from a constant swell.

Alaria at anchor in Friendship Bay.

Because we were on Bequia’s exposed coast, wave action was
high on the reef we wanted to study.So
we had to take particular care on how we anchored the inflatable boat, just out
of the breaking waves, and we checked the anchor at the start and end of
our dive.

This was a high-energy reef so conditions were ideal for seaweed
growth.Normally we wouldn’t see much
seaweed because parrotfish and other grazers would keep it mowed down.However, this is a heavily fished reef
according Mr. Balmar and grazing fish densities were low and seaweed was
luxuriant.

Fishermen of Friendship Bay

Seaweed dominated reef at Friendship Bay

Overall, Bequia’s reefs were about average for the
region.Areas like Friendship that are
heavily fished and where conditions for seaweed growth is good, there is a
carpet of seaweed that limits baby corals so the reef is likely to remain
degraded for some time.

We had learned from Mr. Balmar, that the reefs around the
neighboring island of Mustique are protected from fishing and they are
patrolled regularly by Mustique’s security force.We knew we had to sail over to see if reefs
were in fact different there.

Alaria viewed from the groomed shoreline of Mustique Harbor

Mustique is unlike any island I’ve visited.It is a private island owned and operated by
the Mustique Company.It has a board of
directors (including folks like Mick Jagger, who is also part of the
environmental committee); it is where Britain’s royal family goes when they
want a break from the winter chill.The
week before we arrived the Duchess of Cornwall (Kate Middleton) and her baby
had been on the island for the baby’s first overseas trip.The head of security told me in jest that “no
photos were taken of them, so I get to keep my job”.

The tiny island of Mustique (only 2.5 miles long) has by far
the highest per capita income of any island in the region.Its economy comprises one quarter of the
gross domestic product of the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines!When a powerful Christmas Eve rainstorm
flooded St. Vincent (as it did in St. Lucia while I was there), Mustique
donated a million dollars for the big island’s restoration.

We met with Mr. Simon Humphrey who holds several important
positions within the Company but importantly he is the island’s Conservation
Officer.He has a broad view of what is
happening on land and in the sea.He
worries about how the island runoff may affect the reefs.The island has banned pesticides and
landscaping looks to minimize erosion. The reefs are all currently protected
from fishing.He also wants to see the
protection of the island’s coastal zone extended one kilometer offshore (he
knows that will be hard but he’d love to see that happen).

Mr. Simon Humphrey explains the conservation challenges of Mustique

Mr. Humphrey arranged for us to dive from the island’s
security force boat while Brian, the dive manager, was busy.Afterwards, we dived with Brian and the dive
team.On our first dive we saw the value
of Mustique’s protected area.Parrotfish
and grouper abundance (biomass) were an order of magnitude higher than the average
for Bequia and the entire eastern Caribbean.

A school of striped parrotfish swim over Mustique's coral reef

Pillar coral and fish along my transect line on a Mustique coral reef.

We spent the week diving other sites and none quite matched
up to our first dive but the average for Mustique.However, coral cover, juvenile coral
abundance, parrotfish and carnivorous fish abundance were all well above
average for the region and for the eastern Caribbean.We intend to return to Mustique to follow up
a bit on what might be driving coral reefs around this island.However, the bigger picture that is emerging
is that the socio-economic status of the local area creates the need to fish the coral reefs.Arguably, Mustique can afford to be
conservative but Bequia may not.

The value of coral reefs, as with any commodity, is what the
market can bear. There are some dive
operations in Bequia but there are many more fishers so the incentive to
conserve the coral reefs is low.However, truly unique and expansive coral reefs exist around Tobago Cays
and there they have the Tobago Cays
Marine Park, a fully protected ecotourist magnet.There we can study reefs where the
overwhelming value comes from having healthy and abundant reef fish as opposed
to those sold in fish markets.

Antilles 2013 - 2014

Coral reefs may be the world's most endangered ecosystem. Climate change, ocean acidification, pollution and fishing pressure all can degrade coral reef health. I've studied coral reefs of the Caribbean since 1972. I see the eastern Caribbean as the best place to address key questions important to understand and manage these ecosystems. Trouble is, there are no marine labs there. So to get to the remote reefs sites, I've designed a research expedition that employs my sailboat.

I've led field research all over the world from the Aleutians to the Great Barrier Reef and throughout the subarctic North Atlantic, but this will be the most logistically challenging project of my life.

This blog describes both the scientific questions I'm pursuing and the means by which I hope to address them.